A few Christmas photos to share...

Visiting Santa at Ashlyn's preschool...

Santa's helpers picking out a tree and wreath...

Our Princess decorating the tree...

It's been a while...a long while.

So I'm back...hopefully for good. Ali, thanks for the pep talk last night. So much has happened since the last time I wrote that I don't even know where to start.
Christmas has past and we are now in the new year. Brady is talking like crazy. He usually cuts his words in half...so you really have to work at listening. But if you are around him enough you start to understand more and more. He can finally say his own name but Ashlyn I think will always be 'Sissy'. I can't count how many times I hear 'No Sissy' each day. He follows her around the house but can't keep up so he gets mad when she speeds ahead of him. "No Sissy, No!" Oh but how mad Ashlyn gets when he does get to the sink first to wash his hands before dinner. Pushing and shoving...pushing and shoving. Brings back memories of me and my brother. Don't get me wrong...they do get along...sometimes. It is a wonderful sight when they play together. If only they didn't always want to play with the same toys. They are both into cars right now. Especially the ones from the movie "Cars". In fact just the other day Ashlyn borrowed these other 'cars' from her friend Jackson and she carried them around everywhere. Brady too, of course. They were they exact same cars as the ones they already have, but bigger. Her friend asked for them back the next day...oh did she throw a fit. She wanted me to go out and buy them for her that very second. Sorry Ashlyn, life doesn't work that way. But she will get them this weekend...she has a gift card to use at Walmart...perfect timing Ava (her friend in Oswego).
Well I did it!!! I got something down. I am going to keep trying. My goal is to write every Friday. Hopefully it will get easier in time.

Potty Training

Can you believe it? Brady is using the potty!!! He is only 2 and is going on the potty. Hopefully he won't get bored. He doesn't really get the whole wet diaper thing yet. I have to ask him if he wants to go to keep his diaper dry. It's a start. It doesn't hurt that he gets skittles every time he goes...oh and he has to have two because everything he gets he needs one in each hand. So what if his teeth rot out, as long as he is potty trained. NO MORE DIAPERS!!!

Maybe not shingles

I am so tired of itching. When is it going to end? Now the doctor doesn't even know what it is. I could have had shingles on my face but now the rest of my body where it is spreading to is unknown. Will the itching ever stop? It consumes me. I go to the dermatologist tomorrow with hope of some answers. Until then...

Poison Ivy?

Okay, so last week on Wednesday my face started to itch. I thought that a bug just got me a few times on the face. Well, I scratched and scratched. It started to get worse and spread all over the right side of my cheek and my neck. I tried everything . Now keep in mind that my husband gets poison ivy all of the time, he can just walk by it and get it. So how did I get it and not him? We were in the same places on Sunday at the park? I also am so careful not to touch anything. Meanwhile he fishes through a pack of leaves and vines to get someone's basketball and I say, hope you don't get poison ivy...you should have used your foot instead of your hands.

I should have gone to the doctor on Friday when I called to see if they could give me anything for the itch. They said they had to see me first. So I tried to make it through the weekend. Well by Monday, my face was swollen and throbbing. I went to the doctor...I have shingles!!! ON MY FACE!!! How gross is that!? So I have to call all of my students to make sure they have had chicken pox or have been vaccinated. What a pain in the neck, literally...and in the face too. I hate leaving the house and I feel like I have to explain my disgusting oozing crusty face to everyone I see, even complete strangers. I won't even go to the gym. Probably better off, the people wouldn't be able to work out because they would be too busy looking at my face. Ashlyn even looks at it. She'll be talking to me and I will catch her eyes moving to look at it. I will say, "are you looking at my shingles?" she'll say, "yes, I like to Mommy." I hope this medicine kicks in soon, we have a block party on Saturday.

"Melmo"

Last week I took Brady to see Elmo Live with a couple of my neighbors. Brady loved it. We had third row seats. The characters came right up to us. Cookie Monster rubbed on Brady's head, and now that's all he talks about. I'm surprised how attentive he was being that he decided to get up at 5 am that morning. Although when the show was over we opted to go home instead of eating lunch with everyone. He, of course, fell asleep on the way home...

"I used to be 4" "Now I am 5"

Today, Ashlyn came home from school wanting to write. She asked for some paper and went upstairs on her own to write. She asked me how to spell the words that she wanted to use. I am so proud of her! She even made designer I's...getting a little creative. What next? Reading? I would think math, but who knows.